Book nine here.
Book eight here.
Book seven here.
Book five here.
Book four here.
Book three here.
Book two here.
Book one here.
This is a continuation of my practice to take notes on what I prayed.
Chapter One
Book three here.
Book two here.
Book one here.
This is a continuation of my practice to take notes on what I prayed.
Chapter One
1. Some say that you can't do something until this or that happens. "Can't " is a word that should never be used about you.
2. Grace is not the father being nice to the undeserving. Grace is his desire to be near. To claim I don't deserve your nearness is an insidious form of pride.
3. I have attended more than 2000 Sunday services in my life. We sing a few songs, do announcements, take the offering, sermon, done. With rare exceptions, that is church. Over and over again.
I've just about reached my limit. The routine, the powerlessness, the superficiality. Something must change. Holy Spirit we need you so much!
4. The crucial step towards Christian maturity is to get past myself. This is the same crucial step to be a worshiper. And an intercessor. And a servant.
Hmm. Apparently, getting past myself is crucial for everything.
5. So many Christians believe things that simply aren't true.
- Jesus didn't die in our place. He is the Lamb of God whose shed blood washed us clean.
- Jesus wasn't punished by the father. His blood alone was enough for the father.
- Jesus didn't die to pay for our sins. He died to pay for us.
- The father never abandoned or turned away from the son on the cross.
6. 1 Peter 4:17 For it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God
It's better to repent now than later.
7. Psalm 42:5 Why are you downcast, my soul; why do you groan within me? Wait for God, for I shall again praise him, my savior and my God
I lift my eyes up to you; I will not be downcast. My hope is in you and you do not disappoint.
What else can I do? Where else would I go? There is no other savior. You alone have the words of life.
8. Holy Spirit is about to cleanse his Church so that it will carry the glorious power and presence of God to the nations.
Heb. 10:19-22 Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, 21 and having a High Priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith...
9. Oh, how it's time for this church to break loose! Oh, how it's time for to shake off everything that entangles! Oh, that we would truly understand the promises he has made to us!
I call forth faith!
I call forth boldness!
I call forth the warriors, the worshipers, and the intercessors!
I call forth the healers and evangelists!
Rise up, church! Take your place! If not us, then who? If not now, then when? If not here, then where?
Rom. 13:11 ... it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.
10. Sometimes I talk too much with you when I should be listening.
I can see the benefit of getting alone in a quiet place with no music and no distractions. Just silence.
At first my mind wanders. But as I persist over a few weeks the buzz in my mind fades. The peace replaces the to-do list. It seems like I can almost sense the glory. I hear words that have no sound. You've been speaking to me all along but I just couldn't hear because of the noise.
I start to pray, but after a while I stop. Father says, "Let's just sit a while." I'm ok with that. True friends can just be silent and it's not awkward.
11. I have various regrets for the dumb things I've said or did over the years. Sometimes it seems like I'm no better than I was years ago. But as I think about it, your sanctifying work in me has made great progress. I need more, but I'm grateful I'm not that man anymore.
12. Back in college the class was obligated to wait for up to 20 minutes for the professor to arrive. That was because of the respect due his position.
How long should I wait for the creator of the the universe to arrive? Well, as long as it takes.
Psalm 27:14 Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.
13. Don't stop watering the seed.
Chapter Two
1. Sometimes our dreams get in the way of living our lives. There's no rule that says we must do nothing while we wait for our dream to come to pass.
We can still have God-given dreams even while living our lives. We need to have vision, but we also live in the now.
2. Sometimes we plant the seeds.
Sometimes someone else does.
Sometimes we water our seeds.
Sometimes we water someone else's.
And sometimes someone waters ours.
But the Lord makes the seed grow.
So they really aren't our seeds.
3. Youthful energy need not clash with the wisdom of the older ones.
4. The Lord is faithful, he supplies all my needs. If he had made me rich at the start, I would not know the unfailing provision he has given me all through my life.
5. There is no teaching, no experience, no admonition that can change a person like a Holy Spirit encounter. We would still be in darkness were it not for Holy Spirit encounters.
6. Sometimes you need to leave the parade to find your path.
7. It seems very odd to me that some Christians reject your "supernatural" activities in the Church. You are supernatural, and everything you do is a miracle. But you can be quenched (1 Thes. 5:29).
I don't want us to ever quench you. Never put out the Spirit’s fire. I don't want our church to deny, ignore, misrepresent, or misunderstand you. I want you to be who you want to be within our church. So I pray we would become well acquainted with you and learn to facilitate your presence and ministry in our midst.
8. Set us free. We are so comfortable with our captivity that we don't even notice it. Jealousy, bitterness, ambivalence, deception, hidden sin. Free but not free. How is that possible?
Show us our chains so that they might be cast off. You are strong and mighty to save. Nothing is too hard for you. Who the son sets free... move in your people, Jesus.
Isaiah 61:1 He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners...
9. Heb. 7:24-25 But because Jesus lives forever, He has a permanent priesthood. 25 Therefore He is able to save completely those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to intercede for them.
"Utterly, fully in every aspect." My savior lacks nothing and has never come up short. It's time that we got saved completely.
10. You are about to reform your Church. "Re-form." For centuries the Church has been built on intellectual pursuit. We've forfeited the glory by devoting ourselves to figuring you out and making all the pieces fit. Systematic theology.
But in these last days... the Holy Spirit is poured out. You're re-forming your church into a power church. Connecting with our creator. A time is soon coming when we're going to stop talking about you and start communing with you. When you move in your Church it will be transformative. "Re-formative."
I have a vision for church that bears no resemblance to the way things are done now. But it's not about process, it's about Holy Spirit. When we keep in step with the Spirit everything is different.
11. I think about some of my youthful indiscretions and how any one of them could have gone sideways. 30 seconds of bad behavior could have changed my life forever. And not just my life, either.
But praise be to my savior who delivered me from many perils, even before I knew you. I am alive today, here in this place, with this life, because you preserved me.
So I pray for our youth, particularly those who are at the conference. Protect them, Holy Spirit. Also, open their hearts to receive you. Speak to them. Change them.
And sometimes someone waters ours.
But the Lord makes the seed grow.
So they really aren't our seeds.
3. Youthful energy need not clash with the wisdom of the older ones.
4. The Lord is faithful, he supplies all my needs. If he had made me rich at the start, I would not know the unfailing provision he has given me all through my life.
5. There is no teaching, no experience, no admonition that can change a person like a Holy Spirit encounter. We would still be in darkness were it not for Holy Spirit encounters.
6. Sometimes you need to leave the parade to find your path.
7. It seems very odd to me that some Christians reject your "supernatural" activities in the Church. You are supernatural, and everything you do is a miracle. But you can be quenched (1 Thes. 5:29).
I don't want us to ever quench you. Never put out the Spirit’s fire. I don't want our church to deny, ignore, misrepresent, or misunderstand you. I want you to be who you want to be within our church. So I pray we would become well acquainted with you and learn to facilitate your presence and ministry in our midst.
8. Set us free. We are so comfortable with our captivity that we don't even notice it. Jealousy, bitterness, ambivalence, deception, hidden sin. Free but not free. How is that possible?
Show us our chains so that they might be cast off. You are strong and mighty to save. Nothing is too hard for you. Who the son sets free... move in your people, Jesus.
Isaiah 61:1 He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners...
9. Heb. 7:24-25 But because Jesus lives forever, He has a permanent priesthood. 25 Therefore He is able to save completely those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to intercede for them.
"Utterly, fully in every aspect." My savior lacks nothing and has never come up short. It's time that we got saved completely.
10. You are about to reform your Church. "Re-form." For centuries the Church has been built on intellectual pursuit. We've forfeited the glory by devoting ourselves to figuring you out and making all the pieces fit. Systematic theology.
But in these last days... the Holy Spirit is poured out. You're re-forming your church into a power church. Connecting with our creator. A time is soon coming when we're going to stop talking about you and start communing with you. When you move in your Church it will be transformative. "Re-formative."
I have a vision for church that bears no resemblance to the way things are done now. But it's not about process, it's about Holy Spirit. When we keep in step with the Spirit everything is different.
11. I think about some of my youthful indiscretions and how any one of them could have gone sideways. 30 seconds of bad behavior could have changed my life forever. And not just my life, either.
But praise be to my savior who delivered me from many perils, even before I knew you. I am alive today, here in this place, with this life, because you preserved me.
So I pray for our youth, particularly those who are at the conference. Protect them, Holy Spirit. Also, open their hearts to receive you. Speak to them. Change them.
Chapter Three
1. You raised us from death to life. Maybe we should ask how high.
I have a feeling that it's higher than we thought, or are willing to believe.
2. Praise to you, Holy Spirit, for the great work you're doing in our church. I am so encouraged to see you moving in our church services.
Praise to you for the awakened youth.
Praise to you for the freedom in worship.
Praise to you for the Spirit of wisdom and revelation.
Praise to you for the increase in numbers.
Now I ask for more. More Holy Spirit. Not just on Sunday mornings, but everywhere we set our feet. Let your kingdom increase in your church, and your glory fill every dark place.
Isa 9:7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end...
3. I pray for those who are sick, discouraged, or desperate in our church. Holy Spirit, make the broken whole, the crooked straight, and hear the cry of the hopeless ones.
4. I wanna know who this dude is:
Mk. 9:38-40 “Teacher,” said John, “we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.” 39 “Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “No-one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, 40 for whoever is not against us is for us."
This man, apart from the twelve, was operating in power. I think you have secret agents everywhere, doing your work, making a difference for the kingdom.
5. Prayer is not yet a part of our DNA as a church. This is a foundational issue. A church must be built on and sustained in an environment of prayer. We talk about prayer but aren't yet a house of prayer.
The natural man does not recognize this. It takes Holy Spirit revelation to become a person or a church of prayer. We will never be the church God intends us to be until we are a praying church.
6. Will you deliver us from our folly, our false notions, our dullness?
7. It's great that we have good turnout for prayer when it's "important," like an election, but where are the prayer warriors for actual important things like disease, deception, and people going to hell?
It's not necessarily that we're arrogant about our high status. In fact, it's simply that we just don’t know. Ignorant. We lack understanding.
Reve 3:17-18 You say, ‘I am rich; I have grown wealthy and need nothing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined by fire...
So I'm here to make a purchase. Come and burn in us. Passion and purity. Power and holiness. Spiritual gifts and spiritual fruit.
So I'm here to make a purchase. Come and burn in us. Passion and purity. Power and holiness. Spiritual gifts and spiritual fruit.
Why do we tolerate superficial church?
Why do we tolerate superficial prophecy?
Why do we tolerate superficial worship?
Why do we tolerate our own cold hearts?
We must not be known by what we're willing to tolerate.
Long Section:
9. Gillian: "I have been in a season of fasting this last week and I saw a very scary vision concerning C3. Basically, it was a very dark witchcraft prevailing against the church and we could not overcome it because we don't have prayer equity in heaven. The Lord has been abiding our disobedience but we will suffer needlessly for it."
Father, forgive us for our prayerlessness. Fan into flame our faith, that we might burn with a desire for being in your presence with prayers and petitions. If there is witchcraft in our midst, tear it down.
1 Sam 15:23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
Stubbornness: Hebrew word: to press or push... arrogance or presumption.
My definition of witchcraft: attempting to manipulate or simulate the Holy Spirit.
Holy Spirit, forgive us for making fakes of you.
Rev. 2:20 You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet.
This isn't a person it's a spiritual force of darkness. Witchcraft and manipulation perpetrated by demons and partnered with by people.
Eph 1:18-19 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe.
Holy Spirit, we want understand and know you. Take off the veil. Fill us, Holy Spirit.
Chapter Four
1. Father, you are so faithful. You haven't forgotten us or overlooked us. No matter the circumstances, you are steadfast. Every morning your mercies are new. Your words power the universe, and your Spirit is moving.
2. Father, thank you for moving in the worship Sunday. "With everything" we worship you. "With everything" we exalt you. "With everything" we want to know you. "With everything" our hearts want to align with your kingdom on earth.
When it comes to worship, prayer, serving, giving, evangelizing, praying... if we're going to do anything, why not give everything? Why do it halfway?
3. On the flip side, when we turn out in full force for church activities, do we do it because we have heard your call to us, or rather because of our church's culture, habits, or expectations?
4. Don't mistake a good church service for good church.
Don't mistake a good sermon for the word of the Lord.
Don't mistake the shouting or the amens for the Spirit.
Your criteria for "good church" is different than ours. Our pleasure is well and good, but we want your pleasure in our worship.
5. Service/serving: serving is action, doing things for another's pleasure:
- serving God - prayer
- serving God - worship
- serving God - obedience
- serving others - fellowship
- serving others - generosity
- serving others - ministry
These start as action within the church, but gain traction into outreach as well. There will be a time when a church must move past service to itself to make outreach service more important.
That is a healthy church.
6. We depend on you. We depend on your power at work in us. We depend on you for every good thing. We depend on your discipline, your revelation, your life-giving word. We depend on your grace, your Holy Spirit, your great love.
7. "Fear of the Lord." I keep thinking about that. Father, I don't want to be too casual with you. You have called us friends, but you are also to be feared.
8. When I start to wonder where all the warriors are, you remind me there are always more than I think who are passionate for the kingdom and are crying out for your presence.
1 Kings 19:18 Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.
Kiss - nashaq: "...kissing was a common gesture of greeting, farewell, and covenant-making. It was a sign of respect and loyalty, often used in familial settings or between close friends. Kissing could also symbolize the sealing of agreements or the transfer of authority."
I wonder, have we done such a thing? Is there anything we have "kissed," partnered with, ceded authority to? Father, reveal to us any unholy alliances we might have made and tear them down.
Psalm 2:12 Kiss the Son, lest He be angry...
We have a choice about who we kiss.
9. The reward of your suffering...
Heb 12:2 ...who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
10. What would I give up for the Presence? Reputation, the need to be right, your spiritual gifts?
11. How should my prayer minister to the church? Most of what I pray will only be known by You. I am happy for this anonymity.
You receive my prayers and You do what You want with them.
That's enough for me.
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